CS297 Proposal

Script Shot List Generator

David Smith (davidrobertsmith@comcast.net)

Advisor: Dr. Chris Pollett

Description:

The ultimate goal is to develop a program, currently planned to be written in Java, that can be fed a movie or tv script as a text file and have it generate a shot list for the script. This would mean denoting when each shot would start and end in the script, which character, characters or objects would be the focus of the shot, and the type of shot, from wide shot to extreme close-up.

The first step would be developing a parser which reads in a script and breaks it down by scenes, locations, characters and objects. This is the theoretically easier part as there are standards in script-writing for denoting these concepts. The parser just picks up on these cues and places the pieces into a database, most likely a relational database like SQL.

The trickier part is figuring out the shot-list, which is the crux of the assignment and it will be achieved using artificial intelligence and supervised learning. Scripts will be fed into the program that already have shotlists as training sets. Further information can be given such the director, writer, actors, editors, genre, year, etc. Using television shows will be particularly useful for early learning as shows are formulaic, and patterns can more easily be found. (Consider three camera sitcoms).

Schedule:

Week 1 - 2:
August 24, 2015 to Sept 4, 2015

Make Proposal

Week 3 - 4:
Sept 7, 2015 - Sept 18

Begin researching algorithms; Begin collecting Training Sets

Week 5:
Sept 21, 2015

Begin collecting scripts; narrow in on books to read

Week 6:
Sept 28, 2015

Begin Coding Script Parser

Week 7:
Oct 5, 2015

Finish and Deliver initial Script Parser; Deliver shot cut list

Week 8:
Oct 12, 2015

Start design of Liner Tool

Week 9-10:
Oct 19, 2015 - Oct 30, 2015

Demonstrate Initial Liner Tool

Week 11:
Nov 2, 2015

Continue Coding Liner Tool

Week 12-13:
Nov 9, 2015 - Nov 20, 2015

Begin implementation of Vector for Naive Bayes Implementation

Week 14:
Nov 23, 2015

Deliver Liner Tool. Continue Vector implementation

Week 15:
Nov 30, 2015

Deliver Initial Training Set

Week 16:
Dec 7, 2015

Deliver First Implementation of Vector and Lister Tools

Deliverables:

The full project will be done when CS298 is completed. The following will
be done by the end of CS297: